How much will Romanian vegetables cost after Mercosur

Romanian farmers say that the signing of this agreement is the beginning of the end for Romanian agriculture and that, of all the countries that signed the agreement, Romania is the most vulnerable.

The signing of the Mercosur Agreement has hit Romanian farmers hard, who accuse the fact that they were not consulted, but were only faced with a fait accompli.

Romanian producers consider that the Mercosur Agreement is the beginning of the end for Romanian agriculture.

In fact, this is the general idea in all European countries. All the farmers in Europe, who protested massively against the Mercosur Agreement, reproached the European Commission for the fact that they will have unfair competition and that the extremely cheap products that will flood the European markets from South America will slowly but surely eliminate European products. The implementation of the agreement is, in fact, the signing of the death certificate for European agriculture.

Products from South America will be imported for a modest amount

European farmers say that products from South America will be imported for a modest amount (tomatoes, for example, for 1.5 lei per kilogram, given that in Romania alone, the cost of production is between 40 and 60 eurocents – Mercosur will impose 30 – maximum 40 eurocents, which means, in fact, unfair competition).

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Romanian farmers say that President Nicușor Dan did not consult them: “Our president voted without meeting with any farmer representative, the Interprofessional Organization of Agricultural Producers of Vegetables and Fruits was not called to negotiations. (…) The president did not meet with us, I do not know who he met with,” a representative of Romanian farmers told stiridiaspora.ro.

Kelemen Hunor also accused the lack of transparency of the signing of the agreement: “We did not discuss this in the coalition,” he told G4Media.

Romanian farmers anticipate poorer quality of vegetables

Romanian farmers anticipate a poorer quality of vegetables and fruits brought from overseas and a permissive attitude of buyers, who will be seduced by the low price, to the detriment of the quality of the products.

On the other hand, the signatories of the agreement claim that they voted in favor of it only after negotiations that introduced additional security elements, in favor of European farmers, implicitly Romanian farmers.

For context, the free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur bloc eliminates tariffs for 91-92% of the goods traded between the parties, after a transitional period of up to 15 years.

For agricultural products, the agreement introduces tariff quotas for certain sensitive goods – for example 99,000 tons of beef and 180,000 tons of chicken meat with preferential access.

The signatories argue that the elimination of tariffs will facilitate Romanian exports

The signatories of the Agreement argue that the elimination of tariffs will facilitate Romanian exports of agricultural and agri-food products to the Mercosur market, where, until now, tariffs of up to 55% practically closed access.

They also say that, by signing the agreement, 15 Romanian products with geographical designations (Cotnari wines, Topoloveni magiun, Ibănești telemeaua, etc.) will be protected against imitations.

The LAPAR Association (League of Agricultural Producers Associations of Romania) believes, however, that Romania is one of the most vulnerable EU countries to this agreement, because there are a large number of small farms, productivity is relatively low, and dependence on rural jobs is high.